A view of the main house on Peninsular Farms taken on Wednesday. / Jonathon Bird/News-Messenger photos

A view of two of the stables in the barn at Peninsular Farms, where racehorses were bred and raised while John J. Mooney owned the property.

A bald eagle perches in a tree over the Sandusky River at Peninsular Farms on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. The property includes 3 miles of riverfront. It also is a wildlife preserve where owner Don Miller invites birders on the property each spring. / Jonathon Bird/News-Messenger

A side view of the main home on Peninsular Farms taken on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. / Jonathon Bird/News-Messenger

A view of the Sandusky River in front of the main house at Peninsular Farms on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. The property includes 3 miles of riverfront. It also is a wildlife preserve where owner Don Miller invites birders on the property each spring. / Jonathon Bird/News-Messenger

Grave stones mark the sight near the vicinity where James and Elizabeth Whitaker are buried at Peninsular Farms. / Jonathon Bird/News-Messenger

John J. Mooney owned Peninsular Farms until he died in 1950. He bred and raised harness racing horses there and also wanted to preserve the historic and ecological value of the land, current owner Don Miller said. / Photo submitted by the Rutherford B. Hayes Preside

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SANDUSKY TOWNSHIP — Kidnapped by American Indians as a child, Elizabeth Whitaker grew up with a Wyandot tribe and knew American Indian language and customs.

So it wasn’t difficult for her to learn from American Indians who were British allies that the British planned to attack Fort Stephenson in Fremont, known back then as Lower Sandusky, during the War of 1812.

Whitaker went to Fort Stephenson — today the site of the Birchard Public Library — and warned Col. George Croghan the British were coming. Croghan and his troops held the fort and defeated the British on Aug. 2, 1813.

“It was asserted and believed that Mrs. Whitaker personally attended and supervised the digging of the trench which proved so fatal to the enemy at Fort Stevenson (sic),” wrote Julia Myers of Sandusky County in an undated sworn statement regarding Whitaker’s will. “Mrs. Whitaker related these things at my father’s store and a great many other things relative to this subject which I cannot now remember.”

The British suspected Whitaker had helped the Americans. As they were leaving town, they burned down her house, trading post, other buildings, fences and destroyed an orchard located at what is known today as Peninsular Farms, off Old Port Clinton Road, according to documents on file at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center.

Two hundred years later, the property — the first white settlement in Ohio, according to information at the Hayes Center — faces another threat of destruction, owner Don Miller said. FirstEnergy Corp. has proposed putting a power line across the land and the Sandusky River.

Installing the power line could damage the historical and ecological value of the property, which has been conserved as natural land and animal habitat through the Black Swamp Conservancy, Miller said. FirstEnergy is not bound by conservation agreements, according to Black Swamp.

“This is really Ohio history here,” said state Rep. Rex Damschroder, R-Fremont. “To let a utility company come in and ignore the importance of this property would be the wrong thing to do.”

FirstEnergy spokeswoman Patti Michel said the power line route is just a proposal and that the company is still assessing various routes for the line. In its fact sheet on the proposed line, FirstEnergy also lists a second possible route.

“We try to look at what is the best route that is going to have the least amount of impact to the property owners and the environment,” she said. “We certainly understand the concerns of Mr. Miller.

“We do work very closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure the safety of wildlife in the area.”

FirstEnergy proposal

The 138-kilovolt transmission line would be part of the company’s plan to upgrade systems after some power plants were taken out of service in September.

PJM, an organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in 13 states and Washington, D.C., recommended the power line as necessary, Michel said.

“Because we need to continue to ensure reliability for all the folks in the Hayes-West Fremont area, they recommend we do this project,” she said.

The poles would be wooden or steel and 60 to 80 feet tall — compared to the 40-foot-tall poles normally seen with power lines — and hold two lines, she said.

FirstEnergy had two public meetings on the proposal in October and expects to file an application for the line with the Ohio Power Siting Board this summer, Michel said. The power siting board ultimately would have to approve the project.

If everything were approved, construction would begin in mid-2017, she said.

Steve Irwin, power siting board public outreach coordinator, said FirstEnergy has not yet submitted an application, so the board has little information regarding the proposal.

Property History

Peninsular Farms is what remains of the 1,288-acre Whitaker Reserve, said Miller, 86, who lives on the farm. Peninsular Farms comprises 488 acres, he said.

James Whitaker — whose name also has been spelled Whittaker in historical records — was brought to the area in the 1780s as a captive of the Wyandot tribe, according to Sandusky County Scrapbook, a history website run by area libraries.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, had been captured separately in Pennsylvania and married after being adopted by the Wyandots, according to Miller and Hayes Center records. The Wyandots later gave them the reserve, where they settled.

The Whitakers are buried near the site of their homestead. Buried next to them is a Revolutionary War soldier captured by the Wyandots and left at the Whitakers’ home, where he died of illness, said Ray Grob of Fremont, a friend of Miller’s who is familiar with the property.

In 1929, John J. Mooney bought the land and raised harness race horses there. He also renovated the farmhouse there and turned it into a 10-bedroom home.

After he died in 1950, his son took over ownership of the land but did not spend much time there or maintain the buildings, Miller said.

“The farm became completely run down,” Miller said. “It was spooky to drive back there at night.”

In the late ’70s, Miller bought the land and began repairing the large farmhouse. He ran the bulldozer himself and took down other buildings on the property that had decayed too much to be saved.

Conservation site

The Mooney family wanted to preserve the land and habitat on the farm, and Miller said he has continued that.

In 2001, Miller signed a conservation easement with Black Swamp Conservancy that ensures the farm will remain undeveloped, even by future owners.

The land stretches nearly 3 miles along the Sandusky River. The property juts out into the river and is surrounded by water on three sides, which is how it got the Peninsular Farms name.

A pair of bald eagles has built a nest in a tree along the shoreline, where one of them was sitting Wednesday morning. Another eagle, likely a mate to the one in the nest, sat in a tree nearby, possibly fishing. Another pair of eagles has nested further back on the property from the river.

Miller has invited bird watchers to visit the farm during the Biggest Week in American Birding, which takes place every year in May, to look for warblers and other birds. Some have come from as far as England, Grob said.

Each fall, Miller invites some hunters onto the property during deer season, according to Black Swamp Conservancy.

“It’s fantastic,” Grob said of the property. “It’s so unusual because of the 3 miles of riverfront. That sets it apart from almost everything.”